Reactive devices of electrical circuits, i.e. inductance and capacitance, are known to store energy. A regenerative motor that produces electrical energy, which is fed back to the motor, is a mechanical equivalent reactive device storing energy mechanically.
Motors, which are energy conversion devices, can convert in either direction. When a motor is combined with a generator, the electrical voltage output of the generator is sourced by the power amplifier and reduces the amount of electric power needed to drive the motor. Instead of inputting electrical energy, it proceeds to source it instead, drawing from its mechanical supply. The measurable result is a winding-induced efficient regeneration is a capability for a new age in motor-drive design.
As environmental protection considerations are becoming an imperative concern on the world agenda, the benefit of regenerative motor control is becoming increasingly evident and a driving force for development of this breed of motors.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,814 enclosed herein by reference, discloses a compact, high efficiency non-interruptive motor generator power system for generating and supplying to a load A.C. of a substantially constant frequency and of a substantially constant voltage, the motor thereof being a synchronous A.C. motor energizable from a source of irregular and interruptible A.C. line power, the generator being capable of converting its rotational energy into the A.C. output for many seconds after interruption of the A.C. line power. The power system comprises a high efficiency, synchronous permanent magnet A.C. motor and an A.C. generator coupled to and driven by the motor. Both the motor and generator have a high rotational inertia common rotor wherein an outer cylindrical shell contains motor and generator rotor elements of high permeability soft magnetic material with a surface layer of magnetizable permanent magnetic material, and in each stator is an excitation coil, energizable with A.C., having a pole piece adjacent a layer of permanent magnetic material whereby to magnetize the layer into a selected pattern of north and south magnetic poles. The motor stator is within and encircled by the common rotor and has power windings producing a rotating magnetic field while the generator stator has windings for generating the A.C. power to the load during rotation of the so-magnetized rotor. Both stators also have feedback windings. In the motor stator, the feedback windings generate A.C. of a selected magnitude and phase which is conveyed by a resonant circuit to the excitation coil and there combined so as to provide energization thereof by A.C. of such strength and phase condition as to magnetize the layer of permanent magnetic material into the selected pattern. In the generator, the A.C. generated in the feedback windings is conveyed by an electrical circuit to the generator excitation coil, which will essentially neutralize any A.C. induced therein by the magnetic field as the speed changes through the synchronous speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,649 enclosed herein by reference discloses a device such as an electric motor, an electric generator, or a regenerative electric motor includes a rotor arrangement and a stator arrangement. The stator arrangement has a dielectric electromagnet housing and at least one energizable electromagnet assembly including an overall amorphous metal magnetic core. The overall amorphous metal magnetic core is made up of a plurality of individually formed amorphous metal core pieces. The dielectric electromagnet housing has core piece openings formed into the electromagnet housing for holding the individually formed amorphous metal core pieces in positions adjacent to one another so as to form the overall amorphous metal magnetic core. The device further includes a control arrangement that is able to variably control the activation and deactivation of the electromagnet using any combination of a plurality of activation and deactivation parameters in order to control the speed, efficiency, torque, and power of the device.
WIPO WO/2006/108146 patent application enclosed herein by reference discloses an invention that intends to attain the objective of generating a new drive force additionally and constantly during rotation generated by the driving force from the outside at any rotational frequency inside the mechanism. The present invention comprises a system for synchronously rotating or moving (linear driving) a generator and a motor with a permanent magnet or an electromagnet; the system is supplied with an external drive force to enable a power generator to generate electric powers; the power is supplied to the motor directly or via a phase adjustment device synchronously to cause a phase difference between the rotary magnetic pole generated by the stator in the motor and the magnetic pole on the rotor, and thereby enable the motor rotor to generate a drive force additionally at any rotation frequency of the external drive
Hence there is still a long felt need for an efficient electric motor combined with a similarly configured generator, that maximizes mechanical power output for a give physical size.